Returning Home
by Nyeerg
Summary: Sora's home at last, and he's happy to be back, but settling back into a life of calm and structure isn't as easy as he always thought it would be.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is simply my take on how his mom would react. She's not a fully fleshed character, as I'm sure you can tell, and this is only a rough draft. While I appreciate all reviews, what really helps me to produce quality writing is feedback fro you guys, the readers. If you could take a moment at the end and tell me what you liked or disliked, you're helping me way more than you know. Happy reading! -Nyeerg

* * *

Mina wandered into the kitchen, to prepare something for lunch. Not that she was particularly hungry; ever since Kairi's second disappearance a few weeks ago, Mina hadn't been able to eat- or sleep. Her own son was missing, as was his best friend. And then the last surviving member of his little group went missing without a trace, same as he and Riku had done- there was nothing left in the town that was a part of her son. Of course there was no reason to believe the events were connected- it was accepted that Sora and Riku had died in that storm, the one that rocked the island. Kairi had probably just run away in a fit of teen angst.

But Mina knew better. Sora wouldn't've died. He couldn't've. She knew he would come home eventually. He had to. His memory was all she had left of her only child.

She moved to the fridge and pulled out a loaf of bread and a package of cheese, and set about making a small sandwich when the phone rang.

Mina grabbed the cordless off of its charger, and hit the talk button. The caller ID was unknown; it was probably just a telemarketer, trying to sell her something she didn't need and wouldn't use.

"Hello?" she asked. She didn't even bother trying to keep the depression out of her voice.

"Mom? Is that you?"

Mina dropped the phone, and it clattered to the floor at her feet.

His voice was different- deeper, stronger, confident, but it was her baby. Her Sora! She grabbed the phone, and with a shaking hand lifted it to her ear. "Sora?"

"Mom-"

"Baby, where are you? Are you safe?"

"Uh, yeah- I'm on the beach. _Riku, knock it off, I'm talking to my mom!_ Sorrry, Riku's being annoying. _Yes, you are, shut up!_ Um, I need to talk to you. And I'm fine, and I promise you, I have an explanation for being gone, and can you come down to the beach? _Your majesty, I kinda need help explaining this…I think you know more than I do…"_

"Your majesty? Who're you talking to? I'll be right there, don't go _anywhere_, I've missed you _so much_-"

"Riku needs to borrow Kairi's phone too, Mom, and I won't go anywhere. We're at the pier."

Mina was slightly put off. Her baby sounded _fine_ but how could he be? It had been two years, two miserable years, and how could he have been alive, this whole time?

She slipped into a set of beat-up flipflops and grabbed her car keys, and bolted out of the door.

--

She pulled up at the pier, and parked the car. The entire ride, her heart had been pounding, and she was convinced it was a trick. How could he have been alive the entire time, and never contacted her? He was a smart boy, he sounded alright on the phone- was it even possible? Could she have imagined the whole thing?

Mina got out of the car, and scanned the pier. It was close to sunset, and all she could see was a group down at the water's edge, lit up from behind by the falling sun enough that she couldn't make out who was there.

Until one of them jumped up from the sand. "Mom!"

Mina's hands flew to her mouth, and her eyes filled with tears. Her baby boy was running up the sand, trailed by the others, and then his arms were around her and he was laughing and she wasn't sure but she thought she saw his eyes a little shiny. "Sora!"

Her arms tightened around him, and they stood there, silent but for her crying, and Sora said over and over, "I'm home, it's okay, I'm home," and she never wanted to let him out of her sight again.

"Sora?"

He pulled back against her will and he knelt down in the sand. "Your majesty, this is my mom. Uh, you can call her Mina."

A rather large mouse stared up at her, and she stared back, perturbed. He held out his paw, and she bent down to shake it. "My name is King Mickey, and I'm afraid it's kind of my fault that Sora has been gone."

Mina narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "So you're to blame?"

"Mom, no!" Sora stepped between them, and held his hands up, to placate her. "It's not King Mickey's fault!"

"That would be the Keyblade's fault, wouldn't it?" Kairi butted in.

The others had gathered around them, and Mina took a step back to take them in. Sora, the mouse, a duck and a dog, and Riku and Kairi. What was going on? Riku was supposed to be dead as well- and Kairi was here, safe and sound. She turned back to Sora, at a loss for an explanation. "Explain."

Sora glanced down at the king, who nodded. He stepped back, a few feet away, and held his hand out in front of him.

"Sora, this isn't funny, I want an-"

Her eyes widened perceptibly as the huge…_thing_ materialized in her son's hand. He looked down at it, almost sadly, then locked eyes with her. "This is a keyblade, Mom. It's mine."

"You're its," Riku said. "_Keyblade master_. I could wield it better."

Sora snorted. "Yeah, I'd like to see you try."

"Boys!" King Mickey cut in. "Please, behave yourselves. Riku, will your parents be here soon?"

"Should be, yeah."

Mina shook her head, more than lost. "Sora, I want to know where you have been for the past two years!"

Startled, he turned to the king. "It's been two years? I know I was asleep for the year, the whole Roxas thing, but I didn't know it had been _that_ long."

Riku laughed. "You're so oblivious. I knew that and I was trapped in the dark!"

Mina was close to snarling. "_Explain it now_."

--

An hour later, Mina was sitting on the pier, patting Riku's mother on the shoulder, while his father paced. The king, after introducing the other two members of Sora's adventure, had proceeded to explain as much as he knew of Sora and Riku's two year absence, with occasional comments thrown in from the two, and heavy augmentation by the other two, Goofy and Donald. Mina was quietly amused by Donald; from what she could tell, he had been a major part in keeping Sora out of as much trouble as possible, though Mina knew her son well enough to know that short of tying him down, when he was flat determined to do something, there was no way to stop him.

Sora had gotten bored a few minutes into the conversation and he and Riku had moved down the beach- but still within sight of the three parents, as none of them were letting the boys out of their direct line of sight- and they were sparring. Sora had shown his keyblade to them, and then Riku had taken it. Mina had watched, stunned, as Sora laughed outright and it materialized in his hand. Riku's own weapon, a dangerous-looking sword, had been pulled out of literally nowhere, and the boys were screeching and insulting each other as they danced about the sand. Kairi was already gone, her grandmother unwilling to hear any explanation from anybody other than her granddaughter.

"So what you're saying is my son was _evil_?" Riku's father demanded. He was angry, though at who Mina wasn't quite sure. He and Riku had spoken briefly, both of them looking stiff, while his mother fluttered around him, and while his father had been mad, he hadn't directed it at Riku

The king shook his head frantically. "Not like that, not at all! Riku simply _became_ darkness. His heart didn't change."

"And where was Sora during all of this?" Mina interrupted. "All you said was he was asleep."

"He was, in a pod. Goofy and Donald were as well- they were perfectly safe during all of this."

They were all startled by a loud yelp. Mina jumped, and was halfway to her feet before she realized that Sora had pinned Riku to the sand. "See who's stronger now, Riku? You're not the best anymore!"

Riku's father started towards the boys, when Sora was flung to the side. His blade- the keyblade, she thought- skidded into the sand and was soon followed by Riku's sword as the boys fell to plain wrestling.

The king shook his head with a smile and returned his attention to Riku's parents. "Riku saved many people, though he didn't have to. He warned them of the Heartless, and turned to fight with Sora and Kairi at the end. He's a hero."

"Hear that, twerp? I'm a hero! What're you, still a _junior hero_?" Riku taunted Sora, who he had trapped in a headlock.

"How do you even _know_ about that?" Sora struggled against him, and settled for bringing his heel back into Riku's shin. "You didn't talk to Phil, did you? Don't believe anything he told you!"

Mina turned back to the king. "Junior hero?"

"Sora, Donald, and Goofy were declared Junior heroes at the Coliseum. It's just a title. They're all heroes," the king explained.

The boys ran down the beach a bit, before Sora tackled Riku into the surf. Mina wondered for a moment why they weren't even effected by it- Sora and Riku seemed the same as they had always been. Loud, excitable, at least in Sora's case, and unconcerned with the world around them.

She couldn't even detect a bit of difference, beyond the physical. Sora was taller, stronger, and his untamable hair was longer and spikier. How could he have possibly gone through all of that and come out unchanged?

Although, now that she thought of it, now that she was _looking_ for it, she could see it, a little bit. He held himself taller- when he wasn't being tackled into the water or writhing around in the sand, trying to one-up Riku- and he contained himself more. His actions were exactly what he intended; his jumps, his tackles, they were all no more than they needed to be. He had the air of a trained fighter.

And that both worried and saddened her. She knew what he had done, yes, at least superficially. She could tell the king was keeping some things, which she fully expected to have to pry out of Sora. But while he was the boy who had disappeared two years previously, he was that and so much more. He had seen death, had come close to it himself, more times than he or the king could even begin to guess at. He had lived on the run at times, constantly under attack, and had sought it out at times, all in an effort to track down Kairi and Riku down. He had faced a god, a man so taken over by evil that he had not faltered at the idea of attacking a fourteen year old, had struggled in a world of darkness where he knew nobody, had absolutely no idea where he was or why he was there-

Mina shook her head to clear it of that train of thought. No matter what he had done and gone through, he was here now and everything would be alright.

She tuned back in to hear the King say, "and that's where they got trapped in the Castle That Never Was. The door closed on them, and then they appeared here, not long after."

The king called out to Sora and Riku, but they were too far down the beach, and too intent on winning their match, to hear. Mina took a deep breath, and was inordinately pleased at the thought that she was now able to yell "SORA!" again, and not have it be out of misery or depression- and that if she did it, he could come running.

"Sora!" she called out. The boys froze, and tumbled apart.

"Riku, you too!" his father yelled.

"What?" Sora called back. Riku stood, then offered his hand to Sora and pulled the smaller boy to his feet. They started up the beach, and then Sora sprinted ahead. It ended with a yell, and with Sora sprawled across the wooden pier at the King's feet with Riku standing sedately behind his mother.

"Yeah?" Riku asked.

"Would you two explain what happened in Kingdom Hearts, after the door closed on you?"

"Riku flew a hovership! And we fought a dragon." Sora sat up, grinning like he'd done something _not_ life threatening not two hours previously. "And we fought Xemnas."

Riku nodded. "To put it simply, that's what happened. When we defeated Xemnas, a door opened and we came out here."

The king let out a sigh that Mina echoed. Why couldn't they go into more detail?

Actually, Mina wasn't too sure she _wanted_ more detail. Flying a hovercraft sounded dangerous. And Xemnas- he didn't sound like an easy fight, not at all. If she ever learned the whole story, she wasn't sure she'd be willing or able to let Sora out of the house. The world was a dangerous place!

"So here we are now." Sora glanced over at Mina, and then at the King. He wanted to say something, Mina could see, but he wasn't opening his mouth. He looked apprehensive.

The king noticed as well. "Yes, Sora?"

Sora looked over at Donald and Goofy, then at Mina. She tilted her head, and he dropped his eyes.

"Will the worlds be disconnected again? Will I ever see you guys again?"

"Gawrsh, I sure hope so!" Goofy said. "Can't he use the gummi ship, your majesty?"

King Mickey nodded. "Yes. The worlds have been connected now. It would take a great amount of power to separate them again, and they are tied together by you, Sora."

Mina expected him to be startled by that, but Sora just nodded and took it in stride, like he expected an answer like that. Was Sora really that important to all these strange worlds?

She wondered if he had an ego from it all. He had saved the world, and multiple smaller worlds within that, and had defeated the worst people to crop up.

"And now, it's time for me, Donald, and Goofy to go home. Minnie's probably worried sick by now."

"And Daisy!"

"And Max," Goofy said, a wistful look in his eyes.

Sora stared blankly at him. "Who's Max?"

Donald's cry of both outrage and shock at Sora's apparent obliviousness left her shaking with laughter until she got to the car and got it under control.

--

Mina pulled up to the house, and Sora let out a tiny gasp. She looked over inquiringly, only to see him slamming the car door and bolting up the front steps and into the house.

She got out and locked the car, and followed her son into the house.

She found him a few minutes later in his bedroom, standing in the middle of the carpet and looking around.

"Mom?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

She was slightly worried; maybe something was wrong, or he needed to tell her something she didn't want to hear, or-

"Why is my room clean?"

The question hit her like a ton of bricks, and she dissolved into laughter. She clutched the door frame, and when Sora turned to look her her, a bewildered expression on his face, her eyes filled with tears and she couldn't help the half-sobbing, half-laughter that burst out.

"…are you okay?"

It took a few moments to get herself under control, but she managed it and opened her arms. Sora obliged and she wrapped him in another hug. "I'm so glad you're home," she whispered.

He was so much taller now than she remembered. Before, he was just a smidge taller than her. Now, she could rest her chin on his shoulder without a problem. His shoulders were broader, and his face had lost its baby fat.

"What else?" she asked herself.

"What else what?"

She pulled away, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Talking to myself."

Sora beheld her for a moment. "So..."

"Yeah?"

"...I'm kinda hungry."

--

Mina wasn't sure how she had survived two whole years without Sora. His humor lit her up, even when she was upset- or mad at him. He knew that and used it to his advantage. His little noises were a welcome relief from the emptiness of the house. Scattered snoring throughout the night when she couldn't sleep made her smile. The destructive sounds from the bathroom when he tripped on the new bathroom carpet and took out one of the towel racks and all of her toiletries on the sink reminded her that there was another person in the house now. The muffled yells when Riku came over and they fought over food, or games, or who sat where on Sora's windowsill reinforced the fact that her child was back home and safe and sound.

It wasn't easy, getting back into the routine of being a mother, and taking care of a headstrong, assertive sixteen year old. Sora had been on his own but for Donald and Goofy for two years, and those two were his friends, not his caretakers. He was used to being out at all hours, traveling somewhere new every few weeks, and spending his time saving people.

Coming back home meant rules, chores, a curfew, and the dreaded school.

He had missed his freshman and sophomore years, and that meant night classes and summer school at the local high school, and hours of homework. He got Sundays off from working; that much she had to give him, or else he'd complain and not do his work and climb out his window to go hang out with Riku who, according to his parents, did the same thing.

It was late May when he arrived back home; by September, he was still a few classes behind, but Sora declared he was more than able to catch up.

So, after a summer of having him home and learning who her son had become, she was forced to let him off on his own for school. It felt a lot like letting him off for elementary school again; she wouldn't have him around all day, getting underfoot as she worked on clothing for clients, and generally being the hyperactive child he'd always been.

"Don't forget to pick up your schedule from the office," Mina said as she straightened Sora's blue striped tie. He rolled his eyes and gently pushed her hands away, but she simply moved back and adjusted his white collar. "And do you have your lunch munny?"

"Yes, mother!" Sora said. He grabbed her wrists, and lowered her hands so she couldn't fiddle with his clothes. "I'm a big boy, I can remember my munny and my schedule. Riku's waiting, and I have my cellphone so stop worrying already." He smiled at her, then bent down to pick up his new messenger bag. At his request, she'd sewn a few patches for it, and ironed them on. One was of what he called a shadow heartless, a cute little thing with antennae and big yellow eyes. He'd drawn a picture of it for her to copy, and now she had a pattern for a plushie half-drawn up. She had questioned his want of one of his enemies, but he said it was from when he had 'personally experienced it' and she hadn't asked further. Another was of his keyblade. He wanted the one he called the Kingdom key. She thought the Decisive Pumpkin was a nicer blade, but he insisted. The third was a Trinity, in blue. Sora had simply said that they were cool and that he wanted one.

Sora lifted the strap over his spiky hair, then bent forward and kissed her cheek. "Love you, Mom!" And before she could respond, he was out the door and jogging down the front sidewalk where Riku was waiting in his matching blue-and-white Destiny Island High School uniform.

Mina smiled softly, and waved through the window at his back. He lifted one hand up, as if in acknowledgment.

And then he and Riku both turned, waved, and burst into a footrace down the street and around the corner, out of sight.


	2. First Day of School

"So your mom actually let you out of the house for school." Riku fell into step alongside Sora, their mad race up the block forgotten. "For a while there I didn't think she was going to. How did you get her to change her mind about homeschooling?"

Sora twined his fingers behind his head, and shrugged. "I didn't. She just decided one day that school was a better idea." He dropped his hands back to his sides. His new shirt, a white button down with DIHS emblazoned on the breast pocket, was too tight and restrictive for that. He shrugged again, this time trying to shift it on his shoulders, but the shirt stuck. It was starched, and Sora was beginning to dread having to wear a stiff, bright shirt every day. How could you climb trees or spar with your friends in something like that?

"I hate this shirt," he declared a few minutes later, breaking the comfortable silence. Even after two years apart, he and Riku had still had the same easy camaraderie as before they had left, and Sora reveled in it. It had only strengthened in the five months since their return.

"Don't tuck it in, then, idiot," Riku said. Sora glanced over at his friend, eyebrows scrunched. "Seriously. Nobody wears it tucked in." Riku lifted up the bottom of his matching white shirt, as if to reinforce it.

"You're not everybody, Riku," Sora retorted. "Just cause you don't want to doesn't mean everybody else is going to."

Riku brought one hand up and whapped the back of Sora's head. "I asked Kairi. Which I'm guessing didn't even occur to you, did it?"

Sora muttered to himself, but gave in and pulled the shirt out of his waistband. It didn't alleviate the annoyance of not being able to stretch his shoulders fully, but at least it gave him a bit more of a range of motion. "Did you get your schedule yet?"

Riku shook his head. "If you remember, though knowing you, you probably don't, it's your fault neither of us have them."

"_My_ fault, how is it _my_ fault? _You're_ the one who decided it would be fun to sneak out! It's not _my_ fault we got caught!"

Riku merely grinned, and Sora huffed and crossed his arms. They spent the rest of the short walk to school kicking each other and shoving, but it was all in good spirits. They calmed themselves when they came in sight of the school steps, where Sora spotted Kairi and Selphie chatting.

"Race to the stairs?" Sora inquired. Riku looked down at him, and Sora knew him well enough to launch himself forward at the same time that Riku tried to trip him. Sora bolted up the front walk, and Riku chased after him, complaining the entire time. Sora skidded to a stop next to Kairi, his characteristic grin plastered on his face. "Hey, Kairi!"

Kairi giggled and rolled her eyes, and waved at Riku, who had slowed to a sedate walk. "Morning Riku, morning Sora!"

"HI!" Selphie threw her arms around Sora, pinning his arms to his side, and then just as quickly let go and did the same to Riku. He'd taken that as advance warning and lifted his arms up to return the hug. "How are you? Do you have your schedules? Can I see them?"

Kairi laughed, and she set a foot on the front steps. "I'll show you where to pick up your schedules."

Selphie latched onto Sora's arm, and proceeded to start chatting about- something or other. Sora was a little bit too distracted by looking around, taking in sights and people he hadn't seen in two and a half years to really pay attention to her rambling, but Riku stepped in neatly and did a decent job of keeping her entertained.

A few minutes later, after retrieving their schedules and finding their first period classrooms to drop off their stuff, Kairi led them around the school and began an impromptu tour. She pointed out classrooms, faculty areas, places to avoid if you were skipping class (Sora wasn't too sure why _Kairi _of all people would know that, but she merely giggled and refused to answer his question), and the best place to get food in the cafeteria.

"Any questions?" she asked, bouncing. She, Riku, and Sora stood in the middle of the courtyard in front of the Sports building, and while Sora now recognized his class's president and the best copse of palm trees for climbing, he was still no closer to being able to navigate the large school campus on his own. "Uh…"

"It would be better to not bother, Kairi, it's going in one ear and out the other," Riku said. Sora narrowed his eyes at the silver haired boy, but was prevented from retaliating by the arrival of a trio of senior boys.

"Would you look at this. It's the crybaby and his mommy," the one in the middle said. Sora recognized him immediately- his name was Toru, and he was probably the single most annoying person Sora had ever had the misfortune of dealing with, up to and including Pete. Pete was an honest bully; Toru got away with his assholery on the grounds that it was generally Sora who actually threw the first punch.

Sora rolled his eyes, and turned away from the black-haired boy. "Gee, and here I thought we'd all grown up. Still using kid insults?"

Kairi's gasp was more than enough warning, and Sora jumped to the side, his keyblade instinctively materializing in his hand, as he swung to meet his attacker head-on.

Sora's blade stopped inches from Toru's face, but it wasn't him who'd stopped it. Roxas stood next to Kairi, one of his keyblades blocking Sora's from beating the bully senseless.

"You might want to work on your kneejerk reactions a bit," Roxas commented coldly. Toru stared in horror at both the keyblades and the sudden appearance of a blonde boy from thin air, but to his credit he stiffened up and stuck out his chin. Sora lowered his keyblade, then let it disappear. He nodded grudgingly, already aware that his reactions, honed for attack from Heartless, weren't generally appropriate or useful in his homeworld. Roxas let his own blade disappear, then smiled brightly at Kairi and let himself fall back into Sora.

"What the _fuck _was that?" Toru questioned.

Sora narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Next time, he won't be so helpful. Leave us alone, please."

To Sora's relief, Roxas waited for the boys to hurry back into the crowds before appearing, albeit not in a solid form and barely there enough to see. "What makes you think I'm not going to prevent you from accidentally hurting somebody?"

"Clearly you've never dealt with bullies," Sora said.

"Clearly you've never met Seifer," Roxas retorted. "Or would you call him a picnic in the park?"

"Seifer's the loud one, right?" Sora asked.

Kairi shoved herself between the two of them. "Hey, since Sora and I have the same first period, do you and Naminè want to hang out for a bit?"

Naminè responded by materializing, and she and Roxas wandered a little bit off, both helpfully clad in the Destiny Island High School uniform. With the exception of Toru, who was staring at them again, nobody would think twice about two new students.

It almost felt like he was back adventuring with Donald and Goofy, in places where nobody thought twice about his keyblade, or him lighting bonfires with his magic, or, say, Roxas popping up when he and Kairi were close. It was difficult for him. He was home, definitely, and he would never say otherwise, but it was hard being in a world where he couldn't do as he'd grown used to in his two years abroad.

At least Riku understood that. He'd gotten in trouble a few times, but he was far better at suppressing his learned instincts than Sora.

"This is going to be a difficult year," Sora said with a sigh. Riku, in a mildly uncharacteristic show of compassion, patted him on the head. "Thanks, Riku."

"Anytime."

-

Sora dropped his head to the cafeteria table with a solid _thunk_ and a muffled groan. Around him, students were chatting (or squealing unnaturally loudly) and making a complete din.

"That good?" Riku asked, his own expression tight and annoyed. "Is it just me, or has all the noise been bothering you too?"

Sora grumbled in response. Riku leaned forward and rested his chin in one hand, neck stiff. "I keep thinking something is going to attack with all the girls screaming."

"I bet your mom would let you go home-" Kairi began, but she let it drop as both Sora and Riku glared at her. "Fine, let yourselves suffer." She prodded at her salad, but she was the only one eating. Sora let his head fall back to the table, and Riku just stared around the cafeteria, taking in faces neither of them had seen in two and a half years. "Have you seen Tidus or Selphie?"

"Tidus is in the Sports building."

"He speaks!" Riku said. Sora raised his head to glare at Riku, but the expression lasted only moments before Sora let it go. "That bad, huh?"

"We should have spent more time in public places," Sora said, his voice strained. "I almost pulled the keyblade on a few more people for startling me."

"We can go hang out at the mall this weekend," Kairi offered. She held out a carrot from her salad to Sora and the boy stuck it in his mouth. "Chew, Sora."

Sora bit down with a satisfying crunch, and Riku clapped quietly. Sora stuck his tongue out at the boy, and they commenced a small mock-battle with several more of Kairi's carrots.

-

* * *

A/N: I know this chapter is nothing spectacular, but I wanted to get it up before I forget about it. Remember- I can only get better if you guys tell me what's wrong.

Happy reading-  
Nyeerg


	3. Onward to Twilight Town

"Sora?" Mina called up the ladder to Sora's room. It was late, but there was little doubt in her mind that her son was awake. After his…reaction…to meeting David, she was sure that he'd be plotting to get rid of him. And as far as she knew, he hadn't yet broken the lock on his widow screen, so unless he managed to wiggle out of the bathroom window and shimmy down the drainpipe, he would have to be in his room. "Will you come downstairs?"

The floorboards creaked overhead, but they were followed by the slamming of his bedroom door and the subsequent floorboard creaks back to wherever he'd been sitting.

"Sora!" she called, exasperated. "You can't just hide in your room! You're going to hurt David's feelings!"

The steady thumping of a bass beat drowned out the rest of her words, and Mina sighed. She'd figured that Sora wouldn't take it well, but at the very least, he could have the decency to _act_ like he wasn't just an angry teen boy.

Which, she supposed, he _was_, and while she certainly saw the signs of maturation and growing up n how he moved and spoke, there was still the undercurrent of utter _teen_ness in him. Perhaps he was just now reacting to the two years he'd lost, but it hurt her to see him blowing her, and David, off like that.

"Is he alright?" David asked, coming out of the living room to wrap his arms around her shoulders.

Mina shrugged, and crossed her arms. "He's being stubborn." She smiled weakly, but it didn't last against his penetrating expression. "He'll get over it, he'd smarter than that." After all, it wasn't like he hadn't ever had to deal with hard truths before.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

She let him pull her back to the living room, and for a while, she was only really aware of the beat of whatever it was Sora was using to blast any of their noise away.

-

"Boyfriend?" Kairi asked. "When did your mom get a boyfriend? How did they meet? Is he cute?"

"Kairiiii, don't talk like that!" Sora whined, absently kicking his heels against the wooden supports of his bed. "I don't want to think he's cute, I don't like him!"

"You don't want your mom to be happy?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it, Kairi," Sora snapped. "I don't like him. He's too friendly."

"But the friendly people are the helpful ones, right? Like Leon and Aerith and all them. And it's the bad guys who you should look out for."

Sora fell sideways onto his bed and kicked at the blankets, knocking them all onto the floor. "It's not like that anymore. Here, the bad guys and good guys aren't clear cut. They're all mixed in together." He switched the phone to his other ear, even more discontent with Kairi's answers than he'd been when his mom had introduced him to David. "I don't think he's good enough."

"Don't worry about it," Kairi said, attempting a soothing voice. "I'm sure your mom knows what she's doing. She's done it a lot longer than you have."

Sora grumbled to himself, and he knew Kairi was just trying to make him feel better, but the last thing he wanted was false reassurance. Why couldn't people tell things straight anymore? Even when people were withholding information, he still had an idea, at the least, of what was going on.

"Yeah," he finally said. "I'm gonna go, I have homework to do."

"Alright, and don't worry about it!"

Sora closed his cellphone and tossed it somewhere in the vicinity of the closet, where it thunked on something hard and skittered to the floor.

He flinched, and got up to check how many pieces the phone was in. Mina was gonna be pissed if he broke this one, too…

The phone lay on the floor, surprisingly in one piece, and Sora stuck it in his pocket. He shuffled over to his dark, filled-to-the-brim closet, and began to prod at it. He couldn't recall anything that would make that kind of peculiar, almost metallic thunk, except the weird box Mickey gave him to keep the Gummi ship blueprints in.

_Wait a minute…_ he thought, an idea forming. The Gummi ship still worked; the worlds were still connected.

And what better way to blow off steam than beat up the last few vestiges of Heartless still flitting about the worlds?

Sora pulled the box out, and sifted through the blueprints to find the fastest. He could make it to Hollow Bastion in a few hours, if he left in a few moments, or-

A shadow fell across him, and a voice cut through his train of thought. "Twilight Town?" Roxas kneeled down next to Sora, and focused on the blueprint in Sora's hands. "If you had no other plans. There's plenty of people to fight. Hayner and Seifer, and maybe Setzer if you could convince him it was worth his time." His tone was easy, soft, but Sora could feel a parallel stress in Roxas. The need to be his own person was almost overwhelming at times, and there, nobody would think twice about two boys, particularly two boys with weapons.

"Twilight town it is. Go write a note for my mom, will you? I don't want her to think I'm gonna be gone for two years again, she might take that badly." Sora set the blueprint aside and packed the rest back into the box. There was a second, much larger box, underneath where the Gummi box stayed in his closet. It held all the things he'd collected on his journeys, and he managed to shove enough clothes and old toys and random crap he'd never gotten around to throwing away off of the top of it to lift off the lid.

"What should it say?" Roxas inquired from over at Sora's desk. He shoved the undone homework to the side, and held a pencil at the ready. "Just that you're leaving for a bit?"

"Yeah," Sora said, not really paying attention. He dug through the box to find the bag of munny from King Mickey; it was about time he gave it back to Roxas anyhow, seeing as it belonged to him. "Something about being back sooner or later. I need a day or two off from school anyhow." He pulled the munny bag out, and set it aside. At the bottom of the box were his clothes- he'd put them away at his mom's request. Apparently, they made her think he was about to leave. He pulled them out, and shook the wrinkles out of the jacket. "Think I should?"

"Might as well," Roxas said. He signed the note and looked around the room. "You get in and out of here with a ladder. You don't exactly have a door to stick this to."

"Just stick it on one of the rungs, Mom'll see it." Sora pulled off his shirt and threw it over his shoulder. "I hope I haven't gotten any taller, or this'll look weird."

Roxas rolled his eyes, and peeked over the edge of the floor to check for Mina or her boyfriend. From the sounds of it, they were still in the living room. He folded the note and set it on the lowest rung he could reach, then sat back up and looked over at Sora.

He was standing in front of the mirror, turning this way and that and scrutinizing the clothing. It almost looked out of place on him, but Roxas could nearly see the way Sora stood taller, more confident. He needed the break from routine as much as Roxas needed to just get _out_.

"Ready?" Roxas asked. He grabbed the blueprint and the bag of munny, and handed both to Sora. "Unless there's anything else you need to grab?"

Sora shook his head, and tossed the munny back to Roxas. "That's yours, remember? Olette made you the bag."

"Not the real Olette," Roxas said, his eyes falling on a spot over Sora's shoulder. "Let's go."

Sora held back the urge to say something comforting, knowing that Roxas wouldn't care, and he unrolled the blueprint.

-

Mina heard a vague sort of "zoom" over the ear-drum rattling music, and shook David off long enough to go and check. Sora hadn't left his room, but she was pretty sure that he didn't have anything that would make a "zoom" noise. "I'll be right back," she said, smiling at David. He frowned, but turned his attention back to the television. She headed out of the living room and into the little hallway that ended with the ladder up to her sons's room- and spotted the white paper, sitting innocuously two rungs down from the hole. She hurried over to it, fearing the worst.

_Mom, _it read in scrawled handwriting that was only vaguely similar to Sora's chicken scratch, _I'm going to Twilight Town to visit some friends. I'll stay with them for a few days. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine._

Mina crumpled the note, angry. Something was going on, and so help her, she was going to get to the bottom of it, and Sora was not going to be happy when she found out what he was doing.

"David, I'm going to make a phone call, alright? Sora's slipped out, and I need to call his friend's mom to let her know he might be coming over."

"Take your time," he responded. She grabbed the phone off of the counter, and dialed Riku's number.

The line picked up immediately, and it wasn't Riku's mother. "Sora?" Riku asked, sounding annoyed.

"This is his mother," she answered. Riku wasn't in on it, it sounded like, but at the least, he could probably help her track him down. "It seems as though Sora's run off. Would you mind coming over? I need to talk to you."

"…yeah." The line went silent, and she could hear the vague mumbling of Riku asking for permission. "Is Sora in trouble? What did he do?"

"Just hurry, please." She hung up, replaced the phone on the stand, and headed back out into the living room.

"Is everything okay?" David asked. She sat down next to him, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We can go look for him, if you want."

"We won't be able to find him," she muttered. How could she have forgotten about the-what were they called, rubber ships? Of all the stupid things to do! Of course he could leave, he knew how to drive the damn thing! "One of his friends is coming over. He'll be able to find Sora, he knows his tricks."

Silence reined, and David ventured an idea. "Have you considered alternative schooling? It seems to me that he needs more structure."

Mina twitched.

David hastily backtracked. "I'm not insulting your parenting skills, I'm just saying that he needs a firmer hand. A father's hand, maybe?"

Mina put her face in her hands. "I don't know!" She wailed. "I've been trying, but he's just not taking to it! He won't listen to me, he's so much more headstrong and independent since-" She cut herself off, mentally beating herself over the head. How could she explain him without saying _why_? Sora's disappearance was a well-kept secret, and she wasn't sure David would believe her anyhow…

"I don't mean to pry, but wasn't he kidnapped? It was in the newspapers. Was that Sora?"

_Newspapers?_ Mina stared blankly at him. She hadn't told anyone anything, but- _Riku's parents_. Of course. But why hadn't Sora mentioned it? Riku would've told him for sure, they told each other everything.

"…right. Yes. Kidnapped."

A knock on the door sounded and Mina thankfully jumped up from the couch to answer it. Riku stood there, his hand still raised to knock, and an expression of mild surprise on his face. His mother's car pulled out of the driveway, and Mina waved half-heartedly at it as she drove away. "Hi, Riku, come on in."

He followed her back to the living room, and he waited in silence while she bustled around the kitchen for a moment. His eyes fell on David, and they narrowed. His arms crossed, and David stared back. _I suppose that's why Sora left,_ he thought. The man, even though he was seated, was still imposing, and his dark eyes felt like they were reading nuances that even Riku would miss. _But who is he?_

"Riku?" Mina called from the kitchen. She came to the doorway, and quickly stepped between the two. She shoved a note at him, and Riku scanned it.

It wasn't Sora's handwriting, but the casual words clued him in. So Sora and Roxas both were on their way to Twilight Town- not that they could go without each other, but Roxas wasn't just a tagalong. He folded the note and handed it back to Mina. "Do you know where that is?" she asked, looking tired. "I haven't heard of it."

"I can track th- him down." Riku glanced at the man again, eyes carefully devoid of emotion, and headed past Mina to the ladder.

Sora probably would have taken the fastest Gummi, but he wasn't that good at planning; he wouldn't've thought to take the rest as well. Riku climbed the ladder, and found the Gummi box resting innocuously to the side of Sora's closet. Inside it, the blueprints were strewn about, but it took only a moment to find the one he wanted. "Sora, you'd better be there," he muttered. "Let's not have a replay of the whole thing, yeah?"

He unrolled the blueprint, and subsequently disappeared.

* * *

A/N: This is the edited version; the original I'd forgotten to proofread. [/fail]


	4. Mishmash Meetings

"Gah!" Roxas dug his fingers into the armrest of the chair, and held on for dear life while Sora tried to remember how to steer the Gummi ship. "You have done this before, right?" The ship rocked, and Sora tumbled out of his seat and banged his forehead on the yoke.

"It's just being sticky!" Sora scrambled back into his seat, and the plummeting Gummi stabilized, for the moment. "I know what I'm doing!" Sora, one hand fighting the yoke, flailed at Roxas with the other. "In front of you, the panel's got images of the worlds, find the Twilight Town one." He leaned back in his seat, and pulled the yoke towards him. The Gummi's nose pointed up, and with a little bit of acceleration, shot into the clouds above Destiny Island.

Roxas, utterly unused to moving on a moving object, stumbled forward, at a severe angle, to reach the panel. "You think you could, maybe, _not go so steep_?"

Sora obliged, and the Gummi ship settled to a slower, shallower incline. "Better?"

"Much." Roxas scanned the options, and settled on one that looked like what he remembered to be Twilight Town. He leaned in closer, and in tiny writing across the bottom, he could just barely make out two words starting with 't'. "I think I've got it. Do I just push it?"

"Yeah, just lemme get going a bit faster first, it takes longer if you're going slow. Er, hold on." Roxas obeyed without thought, latching onto the slight rail, and shifting one foot behind him to attempt to balance his weight. Sora pressed on the accelerator, and the Gummi ship launched forward, and burst out of the clouds. Roxas felt himself being pulled backwards, and he gritted his teeth. "Now!"

Roxas jabbed at the button, and the ship went from speeding over the ocean to a dead standstill in a matter of milliseconds. Roxas fell flat on the panel, feeling like he'd just been stretched like a rubber band and promptly shot off to hit a wall. "Does it always feel like that?" he asked, mentally swearing never to let Sora drive again. "Are we in one piece?"

Sora didn't answer. He merely grinned, and got up to stand between the two chairs at the front of the ship. "C'mon," he said. "Time to visit some friends."

Roxas warily joined him, and, thankfully without the stretched feeling, disappeared and soon found himself standing in Station Heights.

Sora grinned at him, and started to wander towards the path down to the Usual Spot. "Will Hayner and them be there?"

Roxas shrugged, and looked up at the sun. "It's not like it gets dark or anything, but we can check and see. One of the Disciplinary Committee is probably around somewhere, seems like Seifer never slept."

Sora shrugged and linked his hands behind his head. "Probably." He stopped, partway to the street, and headed for the low wall surrounding the Station. "You know, you can fly in Neverland," he said conversationally. Roxas followed, and they sat on the wall. "With Peter, and Tinkerbell, and all them."

He looked out over Twilight Town, eyes not really seeing. Roxas stared down at the beach, almost directly below them, and saw-

"Hayner!"

Roxas leaned over the wall, and the hotheaded blond stared back. A grin spread across Roxas' face, but it was promptly destroyed when Sora, leaning over as well, leaned too far and, with a startled yelp, tumbled off of the wall.

"Sora!" Roxas grabbed at his flailing limbs, but Sora fell beyond his grasp. "NO!"

Before either him or Hayner, whose yell Roxas had drowned out, could react, Sora had whipped out his Keyblade, and with a flash, he lodged it in the stone wall, and hung there, twenty feet above Hayner's head. He dangled there, and Roxas could just barely make out Sora's rather disgruntled expression. "Are you okay?" he called down. Sora was too far down for Roxas to pull back up, but maybe if he could find a rope somewhere…

"How far down is it?" Sora asked. He adjusted his grip on the handle, and scrabbled at the wall with his feet. "I can jump it."

"Really far," Hayner said, pacing underneath Sora. "You'll get hurt."

"I've heard that a lot."

"Sora-!"

"SORA!"

The boy braced himself, and flipped off of the wall.

He landed with a _thump_ and a spray of sand, but he landed on his feet, and Roxas's heart was pounding.

_My…heart_?

Roxas pulled back from the edge and pressed a hand to his heart. It was a weird feeling- fear, and a little bit of anger, but Sora's emotions still spilled into him even apart and there was exhilaration like he hadn't felt since their return. It almost hurt…was that normal? Was it supposed to hurt?

"Roxas? You still there?"

He shook his head, and forced the thoughts out. He didn't need to worry about his heart; he needed to focus more on making sure Sora didn't accidentally kill himself.

"Yeah- yeah, I'm here." He leaned over, and Sora waved, smiling cheerfully. Hayner looked annoyed, his arms crossed, but that was a given for him; he wasn't one to be openly happy unless he was ordering people around or beating things up. "I'm going to take the safer way down if you don't mind. Some of us would prefer to not die."

Sora just grinned and Roxas rolled his eyes and headed for the train.

"Is that one of your friends?" Hayner asked. The blond boy reminded him of Sora in a way, but he was sure they'd never met.

"Yeah. Sort of." Sora linked his fingers behind his head and turned away from the wall. The keyblade disappeared, and Hayner waited for Sora to do or say something about it, but the boy just wandered towards the water. "Hey, where're Pence and Olette?"

"They're doing homework." Hayner crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Why're you here? Something happening?"

"Nah, I needed to get away from my mom and everybody for a bit. What's new around here?" Sora sat down and sprawled across the sand. A few feet away, the water rolled up the beach, and pulled back with the same soothing rhythm of the Islands. "Sorry to barge in like this."

"No problem."

-

Riku's Gummi soared over Twilight Town, his eyes scanning the ground for either boy. The Gummi was one of the smaller ones, with the cockpit right at the front and a nice, large window for which to glare down at the city below, and it was thankfully easy to fly by him alone.

Riku hovered it over the main square, and scanned the people wandering below. Sora should've stuck out like a sore thumb, he always did, but Riku couldn't spot him, and there was a large amount of city to cover; what if he was underground or inside somewhere? He hadn't been there for long, maybe five minutes, so he couldn't have gone too far…

Then again, Sora did have his ingenious moments. Sometimes. When he was about to die.

"Sora…"

-

Roxas headed up the stairs into the station, and crossed the open, empty floor to the train platform. It ran on a schedule, one coming in and taking passengers to the beach every fifteen minutes. The counter on the wall read 7:35, and it was counting down. Roxas sighed, and sat down on the platform. Seven minutes, and maybe Hayner could keep Sora from getting into a fight or trying to swim out as far as he could or falling off more walls.

Hah. Right. He'd probably be half-dead by the time Roxas got there. He'd gained a lot of appreciation for Donald and Goofy since being left on his own with the boy, and he almost wished Sora was still adventuring. He was a lot easier to keep in one piece when there was more than one person keeping track of him. Namely, more than one person _outside of his own body_ keeping track of him.

At least there weren't any parents around. Sora could be whatever he wanted and there wasn't anybody to stop him.

"Hey, who said you could come in here? Get out! We don't want freaks in here!"

...except Seifer.

Roxas got to his feet, and warily turned to face the blond. He wasn't flanked by Rai or Fuu, but he did see Vivi halfway hidden behind Seifer. "I'm just waiting for the train," Roxas said. He took a step back, and wondered if the keyblades would be needed. Was Seifer really mean enough to attack somebody he didn't even know? The Seifer from his Twilight Town probably would. How similar were they?

"Yeah? Just waiting for the train?" Seifer smirked and crossed his arms. "Chicken. You don't even know who you're talking to, twerp."

Roxas turned to look at the counter- it was down to 6:13. "Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee, by any chance?" he muttered to himself. Seifer clearly had been accurately represented.

"What'd you say?"

Seifer produced a Struggle bat, and Roxas narrowed his eyes and produced his keyblades. He swung them in front of him, and shifted into a defense stance. "I really don't want to fight right now."

Seifer took an involuntary step back, and he eyed the keyblades. "That other freak had those too." Vivi squeaked, and darted behind Seifer. "I'll be back. And you're going to fight me whether you like it or not." He backed up, stepped on Vivi, cursed, and gave up, spun around, and stalked out. Vivi stared at Roxas, frozen in place.

"Hi, Vivi," Roxas said, deflating. He let go of the keyblades and they disappeared. Vivi's eyes got huge, and Roxas sighed. The boy was in with the wrong crowd, and sooner or later, it was going to bite him in the ass. "Are you going to go with Seifer or stand there and stare at me?"

"That was _so cool_!" Vivi exclaimed, suddenly. He turned and ran out, calling for Seifer, and Roxas shook his head. He sat down on the platform again, and leaned his head back. If only he could stay here, instead of going back to the Islands with Sora. He could rebuild his relationships, become what he'd been. It would be nice. He and Naminé could live there, and try to live normal lives.

Only he was stuck with Sora, and she was stuck with Kairi. It was nice, to have a heart, and to really feel again, but there were so many things he missed.

The train arrived, and Roxas jumped up. It was empty, so he simply stood in front of the doors, and held onto the railing instead of taking a seat.

-

Riku pushed open the doors to the train station, and looked around. The train was pulling out, and Riku narrowed his eyes. Roxas was on it, and the boy looked startled, but the train pulled away before anything could be communicated. Namely, the location of Sora, since it didn't look like he was there.

"Dammit, Sora!" Riku left the building, and stalked across the empty street.

"What's with all the freaks? Who the hell are _you_?" A snide, rude, I-need-to-be-punched voice startled him and Riku spun to face a boy who was already in a stereotypical battle stance, a blue and yellow bat in hand. "Get out of my town."

"Great, one more annoyance to deal with. Just what I need." Soul-Eater appeared in Riku's hand, and before the blond could react, Riku launched himself at him, and brought the sword down, hard enough to hurt but not enough to damage the boy. The blond barely brought the bat up in time to block the attack, and Riku fell back, angry. What kind of town was this, that people would attack others without reason? Why would Sora want to come to such a backwards place? "You're a waste of my time."

The boy narrowed his eyes, and jumped at Riku with a yell.

Riku parried the attack and knocked the boy to the side. He fell, hard, to his knees, and for the first time Riku noticed another boy, a more timid boy, plastered to the wall behind Seifer. He took a step towards him, but the blond picked himself up and dodged between Riku and the second boy. "Don't go near him," the blond snarled. "Your fight is with _me_."

_At least he's a protective asshole. To an extent._ Riku swung again, and the boy blocked and returned it, quicker than Riku expected. The bat bashed his chin and Riku tumbled backwards. He tasted the metallic tang of blood, and spit it onto the cobbled ground. "Do you have nothing better to do than fight people?"

-

"…better to do than fight people?"

The words drifted over the wall, and Sora twitched. Hayner stared up at the wall, head slightly cocked.

"You're going _down_!"

The resounding clash startled them both and Sora jumped to his feet. "That was Seifer," Hayner said grimly. He set off down the beach at a run, and Sora followed after, having little problem running in the sand. Long summer days spent racing Riku and Tidus and Wakka left him that much, and Hayner seemed just as well off.

"The other guy's Riku," Sora yelled. Hayner skidded to a stop around the corner, and looked up at the wall. "What?"

"Can you climb this?" Hayner asked. He rested his hand on the top of a brick, where the one above it had been pulled out.

Sora glanced at the wall, then back at Hayner. "If you can, I can."

-

"Seriously, what's your problem?" Riku shoved Seifer back, anger growing. The boy stumbled and tripped, and landed on his back. Riku took advantage of it and jumped on him, and grabbed his collar, both their weapons forgotten. "What the hell do you want?! I don't even know you!"

Seifer shoved at Riku, but he didn't budge. He had a few inches and several pounds of muscle on the blond, and he had no intentions of backing down to a small-town _punk_ who clearly had no idea that it was a bad idea to pick a fight with somebody _bigger_ than him. "Get off, or you'll regret it!"

Riku jerked at his collar again, and pulled him up nose-to-nose. "_What. Do. You. Want_," he snarled, his green eyes dark.

A painfully cheerful voice piped up behind him. "Riiiku, that's probably not a good idea."

"How many of you are here?" another blond boy, just as annoyed at the one pinned to the ground under Riku, asked. He turned to Sora, but he just shrugged.

They both approached, slowly, and Riku dropped the blond's head and got up. He stalked over to where he'd dropped Soul-Eater and knocked the blond over as he was getting back up. He pressed the tip to the unclothed expanse of skin between the midriff shirt and the low-slung pants. "Leave. Me. Alone. Understood?"

The boy let out a seething breath, but nodded, once. Riku lifted the sword, and the boy scrambled to his feet. "This isn't over," he said, defiant to the end. "Next time we meet, I'll win." He backed up until he was a safe distance away, then turned and stalked down the street.

"So you've met Seifer," Sora commented airily. "He likes to fight."

Riku turned on Sora, still fuming. "What are you _doing_? Your mom was freaking! You shouldn't be here and now assholes are picking fights and Roxas is on that train, and I _want to know what's going on._"

Sora lost his grin, and pouted. "I can't take it anymore. I can't do structure and school and all of it and I needed a break. Is that explanation enough?" He put his hands on his hips, and cocked his head. "Since you're here, want to see Twilight Town?"

_He still hasn't changed. He's still the happy-go-lucky idiot he's always been._

"I'll take your lack of response as a yes. This is Hayner. Seifer hates him."

"Seifer hates everybody," Hayner said. "He's always been like that."

"This place is strange," Riku muttered. "And I was sent to bring you home, not to go galavanting around, getting into fights and destroying things. Let's go track down Roxas and leave. Your mom's gonna kill me if I don't bring you back."

Sora sighed. "Guess we're going to have to do this the hard way."

"What?"

Sora grinned, and broke into a sprint that carried him down the street the same way Seifer had gone.

"SORA!"


	5. David

A/N: I know, this should have been up AGES ago, but I just didn't know where to go with it. Last night, I decided to reread the entire story, and then this happened. I'm going to try to get one out a week, since it's summer and my writing juices have apparently decided to start dripping again. Remember, reviews = incentive! If I know people are enjoying it, I'll be happier and thus more inclined to write more to make more people happy.

* * *

"Sora, dinner!" Mina called from the kitchen.

"Gimme a sec!" Sora called back. He tossed his pen onto his desk, satisfied that he'd gotten enough of his homework done to take a break. It was winter break, not that there was much of what could be called winter in Destiny Island, but Sora had more than enough homework to keep him busy for at least the first week of break. He was still taking an earlybird class and night classes twice a week to catch up, but when the semester ended, he was going to be able to switch to a normal schedule. He was _so close_ to finally being done!

He made some attempt to straighten the papers and books scattered across his desk, then gave up and grabbed a shirt from his laundry basket. He hadn't bothered to put one on when he got out of bed that morning, but Mina's boyfriend was supposed to be coming over for dinner and Mina would yell at him if he showed up only wearing shorts.

He pulled it on, ran a hand through his hair, then heaved a sigh. He still didn't care for David, but he was less suspicious of the man. As far as he could tell, David didn't have any motives (not that that kept Sora from following him around periodically, and complaining incessantly to Kairi and Riku about him) and Mina was happy, so Sora was disinclined to mess it up for her.

He slid down the ladder, and landed on the kitchen floor with a _thunk_ that startled both of the adults.

Mina shook her head, but gave him a smile before turning back to the stove. David raised an eyebrow at him, and Sora smirked.

It had been four and a half months since school started, and to everybody's surprise, Sora had grown four inches. It drove Mina up the wall, but Sora liked it. It meant he could look David in the eye, and it meant he was _finally_ the same height as Riku, not accounting for hair height.

Sora turned his gaze away from the man and went to the cupboard to get out dishes. "So what's for dinner?" Sora asked, despite the fact that he could easily see the fixings for spaghetti. He grinned when Mina rolled her eyes again, and lightly bumped her with his elbow.

"You just like to hear your own voice, don't you," she said. Sora gave her the most innocent look he could manage, and she swatted at him with the spoon in her hand. Sora ducked away from it, and left her in the kitchen while he went through the laundry room to get to the dining room.

He set the plates down, then went back for cups and utensils. He walked in on David hugging Mina from behind, and silently gagged.

David turned at the wrong moment, and caught Sora's expression. He narrowed his eyes, but when Sora crossed his arms and scowled, he let go of Mina and turned fully towards him. "Would you like help with the table, Sora?" he asked.

"Not really," Sora said.

"Go ahead and help, David," Mina said. She gave Sora a stern look, and he sighed and shrugged.

"Why not."

Sora got three glasses out of the cupboard, and grabbed the jug of milk from the fridge as he passed it. Mina directed David to the silverware drawer, and he followed Sora down the hall.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" David asked as Sora filled the cups with milk and put them at the three place settings.

Sora shrugged. David knew that Sora didn't like him and Sora knew that David thought he was a miscreant, and they both knew that Mina knew nothing. Sora was more than happy to keep it that way, and as long as David kept his opinions of Sora to himself…

"Is that a yes?"

Sora shrugged again.

David sighed, and set the last fork down in its place. "Do you honestly have a reason for being against my dating your mother?"

Sora ducked his head, and focused on screwing the lid back onto the milk jug. It took three tries.

"Please don't just shrug," David said.

Sora resisted the urge to do it just to annoy the man, then gave up on avoiding his gaze. "Have you noticed the lack of anything about my dad around the house? Pictures, stories, _anything_?" He glared at David, even though he had nothing to do with it and it was irrational and Sora just didn't care. "There's reasons for that."

He stalked back to the kitchen, and took a moment before entering it to take a deep breath and wipe the anger off of his face and out of the set of his shoulders. He forced himself to relax, not because he needed it but because the last thing Mina needed was his taking his anger at so many irrelevant things on her.

He put the milk away, and Mina handed him the bowl of noodles. "I'll be out in a moment," she said. Sora took it without a word, and headed back to the dining room.

David was over by the window, examining a school picture of Sora from the fourth grade. He glanced at Sora when he set the bowl down, then went back to going over the picture.

Sora turned around, and almost ran into Mina. He took the bowl of sauce from her and set it down, then collapsed into the chair he was standing next to.

"How was your day, darling?" Mina asked him. She dished out spaghetti for him, and Sora barely managed to hold back a complaint that he was a big boy, and could do it himself. At least she didn't offer to cut it up, he told himself, as she handed him his plate.

"I did homework all day, Mom, how do you think it was?"

"Still catching up?" David asked. Sora twitched, but he didn't have any reason he could vocalize for not wanting to talk to him.

"I did miss two _years_, and it's only been eight months, so, yeah, I'm still catching up."

Mina gave him a sharp look. "Are you pushing yourself too hard? We can do homeschooling if you think you're not up to-"

"Mother!"

Mina backed down, and exchanged a look with David. Sora sulked, and poked at his food. He wasn't hungry, but if he took forever to eat, that meant more time he had to spend at the table with David and Mina _talking_ about him and _looking_ at each other about him, and Sora could barely stand it on a good day, let alone one where he'd been struggling through an essay on a subject he quite frankly cared so little about that he couldn't even remember what he'd just covered in class.

Mina and David fell to small talk about David's work, and minus the odd question tossed at him about school or his social life (not that he had much of one), they left him alone. Sora ate as fast as he could get away with without it being totally obvious that he was trying to get out of there, and he declined the offer for seconds. "I'll get food if I'm hungry tonight, Mom, don't worry about it."

"I know, dear, I'm allowed to mother you once in a while." She smiled up at him, and Sora sighed dramatically. He took his plate to the kitchen and left it in the sink, and stood at his ladder for a moment to see if they were talking about him.

All he heard was a soft laugh, and, disgusted, he climbed the ladder and dropped the panel into place to block out any more noise from the downstairs.

Sora flopped back on his bed, but it wasn't a moment before his cell phone, on his desk, began to buzz madly. With a sigh, he rolled out of bed and got up to see what it was.

"Why's Selphie calling me…?" he asked himself. He flipped the phone open. "Hello?"

"Sora! Hi!"

"Hi, Selphie. What's up?" Sora went back to his bed, and laid down across the foot with his legs dangling off the edge.

"I was wondering if, if you weren't doing anything, you might wanna go a couple rounds!"

Sora blinked, and had to drag his mind out of the gutter in order to process her words. "You mean a fight?"

"Yeah, silly, what else would I mean?"

"No idea. If you want to practice a bit, sure, but it's kind of cold out, and it's nearly dark. How about tomorrow morning?" That wasn't totally true, Sora reflected. It wasn't that cold out, and it would be another hour or so before dark, but the only one of the his friends who had met David was Riku, and Sora didn't want _anything_ that might contaminate his dislike of the man such as a friend getting along with him. Yeah, it was childish, but Sora was done being an adult. He could afford to act a little bit immature every now and then, couldn't he?

"Yeah! Kairi came over, we're doing manis and pedis and-"

Sora blocked out most of the rest of Selphie's ramble, and the input from Kairi. At some point, they put the phone on speaker and talked at the same time. Sora rolled over and put his phone next to his head, and grunted at regular intervals so they didn't think he was ignoring him and complain.

"-and I'll come over tomorrow morning and we'll spar! Okay?"

"Huh?" Sora zoned back in. "Uh, yeah, that's fine. How about nine?"

"Sure! See ya then!"

The girls squealed a good-bye, and hung up before Sora could offer his own. He laughed to himself, and closed his phone.

Downstairs, he heard the dish washer start up. He rolled off his bed, and lifted the panel. "Mom?" he called. He stuck his head down, and peered around the kitchen, but it was empty.

"Yes?" The sound of the television muted.

"Selphie's coming over tomorrow morning to spar."

"Alright. I'll be at the office all day."

"'kay." Sora pulled himself up, and slipped the panel back into place.

* * *

"Spar?" David inquired. Mina snuggled back into his arms, and unmuted the TV. "Does Sora take classes?"

"Classes?" Mina stared blankly at the TV for a moment. "Oh! No, he and his friends taught themselves to fight. They do it for fun." _And that's probably the only thing that kept him alive,_ she thought. How badly off would he have been if he hadn't had those experiences before the storm hit?

"And he spars against girls?" David rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, but it was silent. Sora was an enigma; he knew Sora had disappeared nearly three years ago, and had only been home for eight months, but one would have thought that there would have been more information on him. None of the newspapers had gone into much detail at all, and most of the detail had concerned the other boy he had been with, his friend Riku. Sora and Mina didn't talk about it- in fact, Mina flat refused to talk about it to anybody, and Sora was likely to be a stubborn brat if David asked him.

"Sora wouldn't hurt Selphie or Kairi or anybody else. He helps other kids practice for the freestyle competitions when he's not busy. He's very good at it."

"At teaching? Or at fighting?"

"Both."

David fiddled with a lock of Mina's hair. It was several shades darker than Sora's, and much less inclined to spike out in every direction. As far as David could tell, it did that naturally, with only a little bit of help from styling gels. Sora had strange hair; strange hair for a strange boy. "I used to fight, in my younger days. Think he'd be interested in a little fight?"

"I think he'd like that. He's been out of practice since- he doesn't fight at his own level anymore. Only Riku is much of a challenge and they generally end up wrestling instead of fighting."

_Since what?_ David locked that away to be ruminated on at a later date, and turned his attention away from the ceiling to the television. "Maybe I'll ask him sometime."


	6. Selphie

A/N: As we all know, I suck at updating my stories. However! I have not abandoned any of them. I'm just really critical, and if I'm not in the right mindset, I'll get basically nothing done. I haven't abandoned you!

EDIT:: fixed the line break fail.

* * *

"Okay, now, attack me." Sora crouched down, and about ten feet away from him, Selphie put her hands on her hips and stared at him. "What?"

"You're not even armed, Sora!" Selphie said. She swung her nunchaku, and it whistled through the air. "You'll get hurt!"

Sora rolled his eyes and grinned. "Don't worry about me. You wanted to spar, didn't you?" He shifted his stance, and leaned his elbows on his knees. "You're not supposed to worry about your enemy!"

Selphie launched herself at him without another word, and if Sora hadn't been expecting it, they would have wrapped around him. He threw himself to the side and rolled, then bounced to his feet. Selphie skidded to a stop, and stared at him. "How did you move so fast?" she asked. The nunchaku whistled through the air around her hand, and Selphie let them spin to a stop. "You didn't used to be that good."

"I'm skilled. So if I move so fast, what're you going to do to counter that?" Sora grinned, but he'd forgotten that behind the slightly ditzy exterior, Selphie was as smart as Riku, or close.

"Come after you?" Selphie whipped the nunchaku out from behind her back, and Sora backflipped out of his reach. Yeah, he knew it was pretty pointless and he could have easily jumped, but backflipping was _fun_. And as a plus, it startled Selpie enough that she stopped to stare at him again.

"You'll never win a fight if your opponent keeps confusing you," Sora pointed out. Selphie huffed, and jumped at him, nunchaku screaming.

Sora saw the hose before she did, but before he could say anything, Selphie's boot caught the garden hose stretching across the yard through the grass, and tumbled forward. "Ah!"

"Selphie!" Sora jumped forward, and caught her, but their combined momentum only served to topple Sora over, and by extension Selphie.

Sora landed with a _thump_ that knocked most of the air out of him, and Selphie landed on his chest and knocked the _rest_ of the air out of his chest. "Oof!" Selphie's chin slammed into his ribcage, and Sora let out a tiny groan.

"Sorry, sorry!" Selphie scrambled to her feet, and held out her hand to Sora. "Sorry!"

Sora let out a laugh, and grabbed Selphie's hand. "Don't worry about it, I've had worse," he said. He dusted off his back, and Selphie helped to get the leaves and dirt off of his back. "If we can avoid the hose, let's try again." He took a moment to run his hands through his hair to get rid of the bits of grass.

Selphie retrieved her nunchaku, and after a moment to adjust her stance and let her nunchaku gain momentum, threw herself at Sora.

Sora barely caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and whipped his keyblade up to block the attack.

Her nunchaku whipped around the metal, and Selphie and Sora both stared at it, one surprised, one shocked (and a little bit annoyed at himself). "What's that?"

Sora internally swore. He'd been expecting Selphie to be good, but not good enough that he would have to worry about summoning the keyblade. "It's, uh…"

"it's _cool_!" Sora watched her uncoil her nunchaku, before dropping them on the ground and reaching up to take the keyblade. "Where'd you get it?" She slipped both hands around the handle, and Sora gently let go of it. It dropped a bit, Selphie not expecting its heavy weight, before she raised it back up to inspect the blade.

"I kinda inherited i- _whoa_!"

Selphie swung around, keyblade swinging, and Sora fell over in his attempt to avoid getting nailed. "Watch it!" Sora nearly pulled it back to himself, but if she was distracted by the shiny enough to (at least temporarily) forget about where it had come from, Sora would let her have her fun. "Be careful, okay?"

"Alright!" Selphie chirped. Sora backed up to the biggest of the palm trees in the backyard, and watched as Selphie danced around the yard with it. He gathered her nunchaku, and coiled it neatly at his feet. With a thunk, Selphie lodged the keyblade in one of the other palm trees and, laughing, Sora jogged over to help her dislodge it.

"You're supposed to avoid trees, you know," Sora informed her. Selphie tugged at the handle, but the spines of the key were stuck quite firmly in the trunk. "They get in the way when you're playing with weapons. You see," he said, as he wrapped his hands around the handle, "they have this nasty habit of not _moving_." Sora pulled, but the keyblade didn't even shift. "Good god, Selphie, what did you _do_?"

"Sorry," she said. Sora shifted to let her between his arms, to help pull the keyblade out. "I didn't mean to. Will it be scratched?"

Sora shook his head, and then realized that Selphie couldn't see him. "Nah, it's been through worse. Trust me, a tree is nothing to it." Selphie braced one booted foot against the tree trunk, and leaned back against him. "Ready?" Sora asked.

"I hope we don't fall over again," Selphie said with a giggle. "Or people might start thinking we're not very graceful."

"Who's gonna see? Pull!"

The keyblade shifted a tiny bit, but Sora pulled as hard as he could manage, and Selphie was pushing herself back against him and off of the tree.

"It's not moving," Selphie complained after a minute. She dropped down her to feet, and Sora relaxed his death grip on the handle. He ran his hand over his forehead, and wiped his palm on his jeans, then stepped around Selphie to investigate the blade, buried in the tree. "Can you just…get it? Like you did before?"

Sora fought his panicked expression down before turning to face Selphie. "It was…in..my…pocket?" he asked. "Yes. It, uh, extends. Really quickly."

Selphie raised her eyebrows and grinned. "How did you hide it so well?"

"I have really deep pockets?"

"What else can you hide in there?" she asked. Her eyes left him to examine the handle of the keyblade.

Sora shrugged noncommittally. "You'd be surprised." It was true; at least with the pants he'd worn on his journeys the pockets _were_ magic, since he could stick just about anything in them and it would be like they were totally empty.

"Sure would!" Selphie chirped. "How're we going to get this out?"

"I have no idea," Sora said. He could get it out, easily, if Selphie left, but until she did, it was stuck. Mina wouldn't exactly be thrilled with him if she came home and discovered that he'd accidentally showed it to somebody who didn't know what was going on, but he didn't think Selphie was planning to stay that long. She'd only come over to spar, and maybe if he tired her out enough, he could claim that they both needed a break and walk her home or something…

"Want to work with your nunchaku for a bit, then?" Sora asked. "I'm sure Mom will have an idea of how to get it out, so let's not worry about it." _Or think about it. Or remember that you saw something that you shouldn't have seen._

"If you say so," Selphie said with a shrug. "Do you have another sword hidden in your pants?"

Sora laughed and shook his head. "I'll just be more careful, and I won't need one. C'mon, let's get back to sparring."

* * *

Sweat dripped into Sora's eyes and over his cheeks in rivulets, and it didn't matter how much he ran his forehead across his sleeve. "Let's take a break, yeah?" he said, panting. He bent over, trying to slow his erratic breathing. He was _really_ out of shape, and Selphie just _wouldn't back down_. She was more enthusiastic than Riku, even, though most of his fights with Riku more or less devolved into name-calling and wrestling, weapons forgotten.

"What, are you tired?" Selphie laughed, but sunlight glinted off of her as well, and Sora was sure she was nearly as tired as him. He'd just been dodging attacks and tumbling around; Selphie had actually been _doing_ something. "I'm fine with a break."

"Good," Sora said. "I'm about ready to fall over." He ran his sleeve over his forehead again, but it was damp with sweat and he grimaced. He pulled off his shirt, and scrubbed at his face and neck. "You can clean up a bit if you want, there's washcloths in the bathroom." He grinned at her, and she followed him into the house. He directed her into the bathroom, then headed through the back hallway to his ladder. Sora rested against it for a moment, feeling oddly out of sorts, and unusually tired. He was going to have to ask Riku for plain fighting; it was unpleasant to be as out of shape as he was.

"You okay?"

Sora glanced over his shoulder. Selphie was standing there, with the washcloth in one hand. She smiled, and ran it over her forehead. "I didn't know it was possible to get that worked up in winter," she said.

"Me neither!" Sora climbed up the ladder, and pulled himself up onto the floor with aching arms. "Who've you been practicing against?" He snagged a clean shirt off of a laundry bucket Mina had left by the door, and tugged it on. As soon as he did that, he realized that he _probably_ should have rinsed off or something, but the deed was done and Sora wasn't going to fuss about the shirt as long as nobody else did.

"Tidus, a little bit," Selphie said. She watched Sora slide down the ladder and land lightly on the balls of his feet, and followed him into the kitchen. "How can you be so graceful when you're tired?"

Sora cracked a grin, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. "My inner show-off never sleeps, according to Riku. Want something to drink?" He pulled open the fridge, and leaned on the door to hold him, up while he perused the contents. "We have milk…cold water…and some weird juice my mom drinks that I think is gross, but you're welcome to try if you want."

"Just water."

Sora poured two cups, glanced at the half-full jug, then shrugged and stuck it back in the fridge. It'd get filled back up sooner or later. Later, if it was Sora who ended up doing it. He handed one of the glasses to Selphie, who accepted it with a quiet "thanks".

"Gonna collapse on the couch for a bit, don't mind me if I fall asleep," he said. He wandered into the living room and flopped into the old, overstuffed recliner.

"Alright!" Selphie curled up on the couch, on the other side of the little sidetable from Sora. "I have a question."

Sora flicked on the TV, and found a music channel, before turning back to her. "Yeah?"

"Why do you have a ladder up to your room?"

Sora laughed, and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "Oh, I haven't thought about _that_ in years. Let's see if I can even remember why…" He trailed off, and chewed his lip for a moment. Selphie set her drink down, and rested her chin on her arm to watch him while he thought. "Hm…"

"How old were you?" she prompted. Sora opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Uh…I _think_ I was about seven. Yeah, must have been, because right after that I fractured my arm and couldn't actually use it."

"So how did you get to your room?" Selphie sipped at her water, and reached across the table to move Sora's away from the edge, where he had set it.

"Oh, I have a door," he said. He shifted, and slung his legs over the armrest to face her. "There's stairs behind a door in the laundry room, that's how my mom gets to her room. I never use it, and half the time you can't get through it because I leave stuff in the way, but I do have one."

"Why'd you get a ladder?"

Sora shrugged. "I wanted one and Mom didn't really see any reason why I couldn't have one. She probably regrets that now, because I can get down it quieter than I can get down the stairs and unless I trip over something, she won't know if I leave."

"Why doesn't she get an alarm system?"

Sora snorted. "I don't _know_, ask her. She probably should, it would be easier to keep me from leaving that way, but I guess it never occurred to her or she doesn't want to spend the money or something." He sat up, and handed the remote to Selphie. "You can pick whatever, I don't care."

She took it, and was about to ask if he actually meant that he didn't care, when the phone rang.

Sora grumbled under his breath, but clambered to his feet and wandered into the kitchen to answer the phone.

"Hullo?"

Mina smiled. Even through the phone, she could tell that Sora didn't really care who'd called. His tone of voice said it all, and she just smiled and rolled her eyes at him, even though he was at home. "Hi, honey."

"Hey, Mom! What's up?"

Mina tilted her head, and balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear while she shuffled paperwork on her desk into some semblance of order. "David and I are going out to dinner tonight, and-"

"I don't want to go," Sora said, petulance spilling into his voice.

"If you'd let me _finish_," Mina said, "you'll probably change your mind. David extended the invitation to one or two of your friends. He thought you'd like that." The line went silent, and she could almost see Sora mulling it over.

"Which friend?"

"Whoever you want, Sora. Riku, Kairi, whoever."

"Hold on a minute." A _clack_ came over the line, and Mina figured Sora had put it down on the counter. She switched the phone to her other ear, and opened a drawer of her desk to file some papers.

Sora returned to the phone. "Can Selphie come?"

_Selphie? Why Selphie?_ Mina's forehead creased, but there wasn't any reason to say no. Selphie and Sora were friends; Sora probably just didn't want David around Riku or Kairi. Both of them had the unique ability to put Sora in a reasonable state of mind, and there was no doubt in her mind that that was exactly what Sora was trying to avoid. After all, neither of her boys managed to hide their dislike of each other from her as well as they thought they did. "Of course Selphie can come, if her parents are okay with it."

"They are. Right, Selphie?"

Distantly, Mina heard "Who are what?", and it took her a second to remember that Selphie and Sora had planned to spend the morning sparring.

"Your parents?"

"Oh, yeah, they won't care. Mom trusts you!"

_Should I be worried that girls' parents are trusting him that much…_? Mina wondered, while the teens conversed. Sora was a good boy, of course, and he wouldn't do anything to maliciously hurt a fly (unless it was intent on stealing his heart, or something along those lines) but he was still a boy. If Sora were a girl, would she trust teen boys that much?

"It's all good, Mom. Are you going to pick us up or what?"

"I don't know yet; I'll talk to David and call you back later. Alright?"

"Kay, Mom. Bye!"

"Bye, honey."

The line went dead, and Mina replaced her phone on the base.

She fiddled with the pens on her desk, and looked at the clock. Six hours until she was off, and to her surprise, she realized she was a little bit apprehensive. David had come over for dinner a number of times, and they had gone out a number of times as well, but Sora had always stayed home or gone to Riku's while she and David were out. It was unlikely that Sora would do anything damaging, physically or emotionally, but she wouldn't put it past him to be less than mature.

However, Selphie would be there. Sora was positive she was only a friend, but she was still a girl, and teen boys still liked to impress girls. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. Kairi could keep him playing nice, most of the time, simply by Sora respecting her, but maybe Selphie could do the same, just by being there.

Mina snorted. It was a nice thought, but Sora wasn't a stereotypical boy; she supposed it was possible he might be on his best (or at the least, decent) behavior so Selphie wouldn't think less of him, but it was also possible that Sora wouldn't care and would react however he saw fit regardless of appropriateness.

Oh, it was hard to second-guess Sora…

Mina pushed the matter aside, and returned to organizing paperwork and attempting to make some sense of the mess on her desk. She'd deal with her boys when the time came.


End file.
